Let me Check your Clearance Level Citizen
by Newtinmpls
Summary: Paranoia story ("the computer is your friend"). My muse started playing with the idea of a "clone family" and this is the result. Rated T for probable adult content in future episodes.
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: One of those things that just came to me as I was falling asleep. According to one of the rulebooks, something called MemoMax software is used to transfer "memories to a new clone with speed and absolute accuracy. However if the clones really do see themselves as "versions" of each other, then I suspect that this tech is used a bit more often than that. To clarify, while later editions of the game imply clone creation & memory implant as happening after loss of a citizen, I'm writing this story from the older perspective of starting with a 'clone family' of 6, and exploring what that would be like. _

**Standard disclaimer: Not mine, no money, just sharing ideas for fun. **

**~~The Promotion~~**

Jane-KKD-2 took another sip of her Bouncy Bubble Beverage and considered the Teela-O-MLY-1 trading cards laying on the table in front of her. She already had two copies of "Teela Earns Her Promotion to Orange Level", but hers were rather dog eared. And sort of stained from an unfortunate incident where she'd accidentally taken four doses of Happy Supplement and spilled red algae soup on them.

Lonnie-KKD-3 was trying to keep a casual expression, but she could feel his increasing anxiety. She knew that he tended to use up his Happy Supplement early in the week. She also knew that the more happy, or at least cheerful he was, the lower the price would drop.

"How much do you want, again, Citizen?" She carelessly let a silver tablet of Cheerful Relaxation fall out of her right sleeve as she turned to look at the Return To Work clock, which was at seven minutes, fifteen seconds in its countdown. She turned back just in time to see Lonnie-KKD-3 hastily swallow something.

"Well," He said, and his voice slurred slightly. "I was just saying."

Before he could finish his sentence, she smiled brightly and said. "You won't take less than 17 credits? Really?"

He hiccupped and echoed, "Not less than seventeen."

She sighed heavily. "You drive a hard bargain, Lonnie-3." She then started counting out 17 by threes. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that he first frowned; trying to follow her math, then started nodding his head in time with her counting.

"And that's yours." She ended with a flourish.

He handed her the card. "And that's yours." He attempted a half-bow, just like James-O-SPY on the latest Teela-O episode, but the five-minute buzzer interrupted him.

"All citizens will return to their assigned work station within the allotted time." Friend Computer reminded everyone. "Lateness will be subject to summary execution!"

Carefully Jane-KKD-2 tucked the card into the right hand thigh pocket of her black Standard Issue jumpsuit. After her mandatory work cycle was over, she looked forward to sharing her new acquisition with her clone-sisters. Then she jogged quickly back to the stairs, up one level, paused for a retinal scan, detoured around the temporarily inactive R&D supply hub storage, over a walkway and then returned to her currently assigned work station.

The table that she was using as a work area had a new folder on it labeled "Script 67-AG-PROMO". She opened it to find a blurry still-vid shot of a grey vial and several black and white striped tablets. Then a few pages of technical and medical jargon, which she ignored. Finally a page with a number of phrases: "Super Cheerful! Now available in long-lasting formulation" "Friend Computer Wants You to be Super Cheerful!" "Super Cheerful with New Sharp Flavor". There were several hash marks by each of the phrases, and a hand-scrawled note in blue ink that read "A little more creativity, please" signed with the initials D-I-REG-3.

She sighed. Maybe it was the Happy Supplement wearing off, but none of the three phrases seemed very interesting to her. Friend Computer wanted promotional segments to be interesting. She would have to think of something else.

She opened up the Portable Computer Unit and entered her ID, password and extra password. Then she called up the list of Computer Approved adjectives and began to scroll through them.

She was so absorbed in her new project that the Return to Your Assigned Barracks bell rang twice before she heard it. Quickly signing out, she joined the flow of HPD personnel going from Work Cycle back to their clone families.

"Hey Jane-2! Happy to be going home?" Virgil-KKD-4's voice boomed out, echoing even in the crowded hallway. He and his clone family lived in the same barracks as Jane-2's family. All the Virgil's tended to be loud and enthusiastic, and half of them were regular Promotional Vocalizers for the Promotional Vid Segments. He was always enjoyable to be around. His emotional presence reminded her of a Bouncy Bubble Beverage.

Jane smiled at him. "Did you finalize a new Promotional Segment today? I heard you were on the rotation this week."

"I was, I was and it was delightful!" He slapped her on the shoulder. "This one was musical," his voice changed cadence, and he sang out "Teela does what we should do / Teela drinks it so should you / Bouncy Bubble Super Taste / Finish work like it's a race" Then his voice changed to a monotone chant that was so rapid it was hard to follow, "Bouncy Bubble Super Taste available for morning workcycle supplement for only 3 credits per individual serving. Do not take on an empty stomach. Do not take if you are using Super Cheerful Plus Drink. Side effects of excessive use may include blurred vision, headaches, nerve damage, insomnia, hiccups, visual or auditory hallucinations or brain damage."

Her smile faltered. She'd written a musical Promotional Segment for Bouncy Bubble Super Taste, but this was not it. After a moment she said. "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it."

He nodded encouragingly. "Not yours, then? I sort of hoped it was. Well, I'm sure your next idea will be a grand success."

"Thank you, Virgil." She smiled back at him. His happiness was catching, and somehow picking up happiness from a person always felt better to her than picking it up from a pill. Not that she would ever say that to anyone. Because only a mutant could do something like that.

The route home was delayed by a group of red-garbed troubleshooters spraying down a section of corridor with a foamy spray. The floors were quite slippery, and the masked and biohazard garbed troubleshooters were quite brusque about waving groups through in between vacuuming up each application of foam.

As they carefully picked their way through the clumps of antiseptic smelling foam, Virgil muttered, "I think that a few folks could certainly use a sixpack of Bouncy Bubble Happy Shots."

Jane kept her face downward, staring carefully at the floor as she made her way along. All around her she felt anger, fear, frustration, fury. Murderous intent. Nasty violent feelings and waves of desire for violence came like waves off of the troubleshooters. She hated being near them. Why were they always so afraid, so angry? Her skin crawled as she could feel the way they glared back and forth. They never seemed to be angry at her, or at any of the infrareds, for that matter. But the feel of barely-controlled violence was always there like the background hissing of the air conditioning or the crackling of the computer's loudspeakers.

She felt Virgil's hand at her elbow.

"You okay?" His voice was gentle. "I know some of these spots look pretty slippery."

The sense of his cheerfulness intensified with his touch and steadied her. The anger and fear of the troubleshooters seemed to fade a bit.

"It's a bit tricky here," she admitted. "Thanks for the assistance."

He lowered his voice to a passable imitation of James-O-SPY. "Always a pleasure to assist a loyal citizen, citizen."

At the barracks they dispersed to meet up with their clone families. Jane-KKD-2 was the first of her sister-clones to arrive at the discussion table nearest their shared bunks. Jane-3 and Jane-6 walked into the KKD-Barracks Unit-117B arm in arm, chatting about whether the early morning test screen should be a jagged stripes or a checker pattern. It was a longstanding argument. Jane-3 was in favor of jagged stripes, but Jane-6 thought the pattern was too reminiscent of static and thus was not a true test of monitor fidelity.

Jane-2 pulled her new Teela-O trading card out of her pocket and held it up where her sister-clones would see it. She said nothing, just waited with a happy smile on her face.

They didn't notice it at first. It was actually a bunkmate, Dorrie-KKD-6 who saw it and gave a squeal of envy. "Friend Computer surely smiles on you today, Jane-2! Is that a mint copy of 'Teela Earns Her Promotion to Orange Level'"?

Jane-3 and Jane-6 hurried over to get a closer look, and Jane-1 and Jane-4 joined them.

Dorrie-6 reached out a reverent fingertip. "Oh, you are so lucky. I haven't seen one in this good condition in months."

Jane-5 stepped into the circle of admiring clones and said. "Well let's hope that no one ends up getting sick all over this one."

Jane-2 felt her face getting red. Jane-3's giggling was not helping.

Despite her embarrassment, Jane-2 reached out to touch the nearest two of her sisters, and felt a calming sense of togetherness.

Oddly, though, the sense of calm and safety was marred by something. It only took a moment for the Jane family to realize what it was. Dorrie-6. She was very worried. Scared. Jane thought that she was almost as scared as a troubleshooter.

And there were no other members of the Dorrie family present. Where were they? Jane-2 recalled vaguely that some time ago Dorrie-1 had been promoted to red level, but she'd lost track of the news after that.

"Stand by for MemoMax download." The kind voice of Friend Computer reminded them it was time for their evening sharing.

Jane-2 blinked as a series of images came. A brief segment of her adjective research, a review of Jane-3's redesign of wider stripes for the test pattern, and equally short memory specimens from her other sisters' workcycles.

Her musing about their shared HPD & Mind Control career came to a sudden halt, when a wave of horror, fear and nausea slammed into her. Not just her – she could feel in a moment that her whole clone family had been affected and it was coming from Dorrie-6.

Before she could react, another crackle heralded Friend Computer's voice.

"I'm happy to announce two promotions, citizens. Dorrie-KKD-6 and Jane-KKD-1 are promoted to red level troubleshooters. Report to KKD terminal 16B for mission briefing and directions."

Promotion to red level. Every citizen's dream.

But Jane felt her sister's hands tighten as they held onto each other, all of them feeling the sick horror that was overwhelming Dorrie-6. Who had just gotten a MemoMax download from one or more of her troubleshooter clone-sisters.

Suddenly being a troubleshooter didn't sound like such a wonderful thing.

Jane-1 reached out a hand to take Dorrie-6's. "Come on, Dorrie." She said. "We don't want to be late for our very first mission briefing."

Jane-2 watched her clone sister walk to the barracks door. She would be the next member of her family to take that walk. Where did it lead? She was starting to think that maybe she didn't want to know.


	2. Chapter 2: I've got a new drug

_Authors note: Despite Paranoia RPG being mostly out of print (and horrifyingly expensive on amazon and e-bay) there are still a lot of copies of the various rule editions and adventure modules out there. I'm pretty much assuming that anything mentioned in such a source exists. So if you see a familiar reference, like the Beloved Teela-O-MLY-1, you will have a good idea where I got it from. You do know who Teela-O-MLY-1 is, don't you citizen? After all I'm sure you have been attending to your required propagan-[cough]-your mandatory socialization and vid-viewing hours. _

_A note about naming conventions. In Alpha Complex, a person's "full" name would be [personal name] – [security clearance] – [Home (think 'birth') sector] – [Clone number (if higher than 1)]. Casual address is shorter. Infrareds have essentially the minimum security clearance, so they are usually referred to by name and clone number, for example Virgil-3. Anyone with an actual security clearance (red through ultraviolet) would be casually referred to by their name, and clearance, such as Virgil-G. Since only one member of a clone family is promoted at a time, most of the population of alpha complex are infrareds, lowly bottom dwellers in the mucky swamps of life. You have heard of swamps? Please report for termination._

**Standard disclaimer: Paranoia the dystopian RPG is (or was, depending on date and version) the property of Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, Eric Goldberg, West End Games and Mongoose Publishing. Various adventure modules and rules revisions are copyrighted to their various authors and/or publishers. I make no money from this. I just have fun. **

Jane-KKD-2 stared at the List of Most Recommended Adjectives that Friend Computer had provided for use in promotional segments. She had toggled her terminal to display them in random order, hoping it would inspire her to come up with something creative for "Script 67-AG-PROMO" which was a promotional segment for Super Cheerful Supplement. Come on, she told herself. How hard could this be? Most of the infrared workers in Alpha Complex took Cheerful Supplements three times a day. It shouldn't be too hard to get people interested in trying Super Cheerful.

But she couldn't stop thinking of her clone sister Jane-1. Now Jane-R-KKD-1. She had been promoted to red clearance last night along with Dorrie-6. Were they in the same troubleshooter group? Where they even now being shot at by commies? Attacked by mutants?

She sighed and stared at the list again.

Helpful

Cheerful

Good

Super

Excellent

Popular

Bubbly

Responsible

Dedicated

Enthusiastic

Fun

Happy

Alert

Friendly

Cooperative

Loyal

She had 2.5 workcycles allotted for each promotional segment script, and she had already used up … She looked at the chronometer on the wall. One hour till Relaxing lunch segment. So she was about halfway through her time. The printout she'd received yesterday sat before her in front of the screen, covered with doodles and scribbles. Some of them looked like capsules.

In her pocket was the day's allotment of nutritional supplements that she had purchased from the KKD vend-o-matic as usual. Three of Cheerful Relaxation, which neither she nor any of her clone sisters ever took, and three of Happy supplement, which tended to only last an hour or two. Usually she took those after lunch.

At the bottom of the printout was the reason for her stress. In iridescent silvery ink was a comment from High Programmer Darion-I-REG-3. "A little more creativity, please". Someone else had already suggested several perfectly reasonable slogans, and a high programmer had disliked them. All of them. There was no name attached to the previous suggestions which was a little ominous. Jane-2 wasn't sure if ending up with this assignment was a reward from her boss, or a punishment. Probably the latter, after all, if she didn't like enough of Jane-2's suggestions, her supervisor might demote her to stairwell and corridor signage.

"Hello everyone!" An excessively perky voice announced the arrival of the very person Jane-2 had been thinking about. She and the rest of the black jumpsuit garbed infrareds looked up as Tiffy-O-GED-3 pranced into the promotional writer's workroom. Tiffy-O was wearing her favorite orange jumpsuit; a clingy long sleeved sleekly tailored garment that was so brightly colored that it made Jane-2's eyes water to look at it for long. This morning, her hair was dyed that same color, and styled in a riot of curls. She paused, and as usual, posed by the door, hands waving, nails a slightly darker, but sparkly shade of orange.

Jane didn't find all that overwhelming neon color attractive, but at the same time she felt all too aware of her own short-sleeved disposable black jumpsuit made of standard-issue; a material about midway between heavy paper and cheap plastic.

Tiffy-O flounced through the room, peering over each shoulder in turn, making cheerful comments like "have you thought about putting that to music?" or "Maybe we can get a vid segment of a troubleshooter using that product".

At the next desk over, Hector-KOL-2 muttered, "Well she's got some extra bubbles in her bouncy today, doesn't she?"

Jane-2 bowed her head over her work, trying to hide her grin.

Then an orange-and-sparkle tipped hand reached over from behind her to flip through Jane's current folder. "Oh," Tiffy said in a perky voice, "you've been lucky enough to get a second chance to impress one of the high programmers! I just know you'll make my office look good!"

In complete contrast to her manner, a wave of loathing and anticipation swept over Jane-2. Tiffy-O was gleefully anticipating Jane-2's failure, and gloating over it already.

Jane-2 felt sick to her stomach, and wished hopelessly for a double handful of Happy supplement. She knew better than to reach for the ones in her pocket. The last time Tiffy-O had seen one of her supervisees taking a supplement at the desk; she'd confiscated half of it, and fined them for not bringing enough to share with the entire office. So she kept her gaze down, and quietly said. "Yes, I'll do my best."

Luckily Tiffy-O took no notice real notice of her reaction, drifting off to another row of desks ahead of them.

Jane-2 struggled over the next hour, sure that she was going to be demoted, endlessly writing down scribbled versions of the different adjectives. She had started her day worried about how her clone-sister Jane-R-KKD-1 was faring after her promotion, but now all her fears were for herself.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that it was only when Hector-2 bumped into her desk and hastily apologized on his way to Relaxing Lunch Segment that she looked up at the chronometer.

Three minutes into Relaxing Lunch Segment. Usually she would have purchased some cold fun at one of the KKD Vend-O-Matics and brought it to work in the Carry-All she kept slung over her shoulder most days. That would allow her to visit the Unofficial Infra-Trade Tables while eating. This morning she'd gotten her mandatory supplements, but somehow completely forgotten about the nutra-meal part of the meal.

She pulled out the three grey triangles of Happy Supplement and held them in her right palm. Maybe if she took one, she'd feel better. Probably if she took all of them, she'd feel much better.

"Oh, Jane-2!" The soft voice was so pitched with hope and fear that even before she looked, Jane-2 could tell that Kitti-4 was crossing the fingers of both hands.

Jane closed her fingers over the supplements. "Can I help you with something?"

"Um, a trade?"

Kitti-4 held out her own hand. In it were four small pink-and-white capsules, no more than half the size of Cheerful Relaxation.

Jane-2 had never seen anything like them. Frowning, she asked. "What are those?"


	3. Chapter 3: New and Improved

_Authors note: Depending on the edition, many players and game masters of Paranoia like to come up with rather bizarre or humorous names using the name-and-sector format. Examples might include John-R-DOE or even Johnny-B-GUD. Because of this, most game supplements (and PC names) will include a huge number of "sectors". Since by and large it's troubleshooters (or other upper clearance level persons) who travel around, I think that for purposes of this story, it seems more logical to have the same, or similar sector designations for many of the infrared characters. _

**Standard disclaimer: Paranoia the dystopian RPG is (or was, depending on date and version) the property of Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, Eric Goldberg, Alan Varney, West End Games and Mongoose Publishing. Various adventure modules and rules revisions are copyrighted to their various authors and/or publishers. I make no money from this. I just have fun**.

**~~Inspiration Strikes~~**

Jane-2 stared at the four pink-and-white capsules in Kitti-4's open palm.

"I got them from a friend." Kitti-KKD-4 spoke quietly.

In Alpha complex, that was pretty much the same thing as saying that this was something that Friend Computer had not authorized. It could be dangerous. But Kitti-4 had always been kind, and underneath her words Jane-2 could feel a subtle pulse of hope and some sort of hunger, almost like a soft voice murmuring 'please-please-please-please'.

"What do they do?"

"They're for concentration," Kitty said. "They make your mind work harder, and you looked like you were having a hard time." A pulse of guilt, and she added, "And I noticed you have three Happy Supplements." She bit her lip.

Jane had never taken this long on an assignment, and not come up with anything. Her boss wanted her to fail. Her older clone-sister was out there somewhere fighting commie traitors and she wasn't going to have enough time to get something to eat and visit the Infra-Trade Tables. Her day was already terrible. It wasn't like it could get any worse. Maybe these would help. "All right." She said. "I'll give you what I have, but I want all of them."

Kitti-4 didn't even pause, she just shook Jane-2's hand, transferring all the little capsules.

Jane gave her the Happy Supplements, and Kitti-4 promptly swallowed all three. After a moment, she sighed. Her expression relaxed and her pupils started to dilate. "You are so sweet." She wandered back in the general direction of her desk. She bumped into the corner of Hector-KOL-2's desk, and a few papers went floating to the floor.

Knowing how much Hector hated mess, Jane-2 picked them up. Then she looked at the Return-to-Work display. Twelve minutes, forty seconds. If she wanted anything besides the concentration capsules for lunch, she had better get moving. She shoved the papers into the personal equipment satchel she'd slung over her right shoulder, and headed out to the nearest Vendo-O-Matic.

Ten minutes later she was back at her desk with a packet of sliced Cold Fun, a bag of Algae Chips and an almost sort of warm thermo-cup of CoffeeLike. She swallowed one of the concentration capsules and drank most of the CoffeeLike.

She opened up her Script 67-AG-PROMO folder again, and idly flipped through the pages of technical description. Usually she didn't really pay much attention to this part, but doing things the usual way hadn't worked out so far, so it was time to try something new. She looked over the research data. Names. A few notes about similarities in formula. A chemical equation that made no sense to her at all.

She pulled over her keyboard and munched on a slice of cold fun as she typed in researcher names. Sigurd-G-AKD-3. Sigurd-G-AKD-2 had developed a formulation for Cold Fun that made it keep its moist wobbly texture for months. He'd also been part of the team that developed Super Cheerful Plus drink. After a few more minutes, she found he'd also been on at least two other research teams that had classified developments.

She drummed her fingers on the table, feeling energized. Okay, so she didn't know, and couldn't know exactly what higher clearance projects he'd worked on. But she could use that. She turned the printout page over and began scribbling her ideas.

She started tapping her foot in time with her thoughts. Clearance. Development. Service. She was muttering under her breath, and then suddenly a stream of babbling co-workers swarmed in to head for their desks. Trying her best to ignore the noise, she started humming to herself. That gave her another idea. Virgil-KKD-4 had mentioned enjoying musical promotional segments. Maybe he would be a good choice for this one. He had a nice, low voice. Yes, yes that could definitely work.

She called up a blank Promotional Slide Series and started filling in the sections. Behind her she could hear Kitti-4 talking to Tiffy-O, and Jane-2 realized that Tiffy was getting very frustrated with Kitti-4's relaxed attitude. Jane smiled to herself. Apparently those Happy Supplements were doing their job.

Eventually Tiffy was going to make her way over to Jane, but this time Jane would be ready.

She was just finishing her first draft when a familiar voice behind her said. "A musical segment?" It was Virgil.

She glanced up to see him peering over her shoulder.

Before she could answer, Tiffy-O's nasal twang announced that she was finally done harassing Kitti-4. "_Still staring at a blank piece of paper_?" The unkindness was so much more pronounced than usual, that Jane-2 turned in surprise.

Beside her, Virgil started back, and followed her gaze. "Something?" He looked surprised and a little confused.

Tiffy-O sauntered up to Jane-2's desk. "So, how is Jane's special project going? I'm sure you have something exciting for me, yes?" Before Jane could answer she added. "_Almost time to transfer you to bystander fatality duty, hmm_?" But Jane was looking right at her when she said that last sentence. And she wasn't saying anything. Her mouth wasn't moving.

Beside her Virgil murmured quietly. "_What in the Complex did you do to get her this angry_?" She could see him out of the corner of her gaze. He hadn't actually said that. Well, he hadn't said it out loud.

Trying not to think about what she'd just heard. Or not heard. Anyway, Jane spoke a little too loudly. "I'd be happy to show you my idea."

Before Tiffy-O could say anything, a soft buzzing came from the screen of a wide plastic orange bracelet she was wearing. She glanced at it, and raised an eyebrow. She smiled at Jane, and it wasn't a friendly smile.

Nodding to the desk screen where "Script 67-AG-PROMO Jane-2-KKD version 1.0/Saved" was displayed, Tiffy-O said. "Forward your file to my data-cache, Jane-2. I'll let Dorian-I know that you have a script proposal for him. I'm sure he'll be very interested to take a look."

It took Jane-2 several swallows before she could say. "Okay."

Tiffy-O patted her absently on the shoulder as she walked past, looking for the next subordinate to target. As she touched Jane-2, there was another whisper, a more sarcastic one. "_Gods, these infrareds are no challenge. She's got so much Bouncy Bubble and Super Happy in her system, I could tell her to volunteer for bystander fatality duty and she'd just do it_."

Tiffy-O's train of thought was abruptly overwhelmed by a shriek. Hector-KOL-2 was frantically sorting through printouts. "_Where is it? Oh Great Datastore, I'm going to get killed when they find it. I'm dead, I'm so dead, Oh NO, oh no, oh no_."

Without thinking, Jane-2 clapped her hands to her head. Of course that did nothing to block out the sound of Hector's moaning.

Virgil said softly. "Are you all right?"

Jane's mouth went suddenly dry and she managed. "Um. Cold headache. The sliced Cold Fun was pretty frozen."

Virgil's smile was a bit forced. "Would you like me to get you something hot to drink?"

Inwardly, and almost at the same time, Jane was aware that he knew she was lying but instead of wondering why, he was just thinking worriedly. "_You have got to learn to hide it better_."

Behind them, Tiffy-O left the room.

Hector-2 came over to where they stood. "Um, I'm missing a couple of pages of my Promotional Slide Series printout." He glanced back and forth. "You haven't seen it? Or who took it?"

The sudden rage and determination that accompanied that question sent a shiver through Jane-2. It was like standing next to a troubleshooter. Mouth suddenly dry, she shook her head silently.

Virgil rolled his eyes and sighed exaggeratedly. "Oh please tell me the scrub bots haven't started doing extra sweep-throughs again during Relaxing Lunch Segment. Last time they did that they polished the floor under my desk and when I pulled out my chair, I nearly knocked myself over."

Hector's eyes flashed with hope, and without another word, he dashed off.

Virgil turned to go, and on sudden impulse, Jane-2 grabbed his wrist.

He glanced at her wrist, and then up into her eyes. "I hear that KKY sector will be having a Loyalty Parade later this evening. Would you like to walk with me and see it before we return to barracks for Evening Mandatory Socialization?"

"I'd like that."

**~~I Love a Parade~~**

Two hours later, they were walking side by side. Due to construction, they had to take a short detour through KYB sector, down through several dusty tunnels, then a muddy stairwell, and now, with only a short time left, they jogged along a rickety catwalk, hoping to get a good vantage.

Jane-2 could see a group of troopers in the distance. Gleaming green uniforms, long barreled laser rifles held in a semi-ready position. The Internal Security forces were arrayed in groups of 6, walking two by two down the main corridor. A flag officer between the first and second groups carried a black and white banner with the circular eye showing proudly. For just a moment, Jane-2 paused. It was a stirring sight.

And then she heard the voice of her clone-sister Jane-R-KKD-1. A horrified shout of despair. "_Jane-2? Oh NO, get back, get away, get out of here now_."

The sudden terror and the need to run overwhelmed almost everything, and gripping Virgil's hand, Jane-2 bolted for the nearest t-intersection on the catwalk. It was rusty-looking, but it led through a winding complex of ventilation-type piping. It was the only thing remotely resembling cover that she could see.

As they past the second section of piping, the sector was suddenly full of noise. Laser shots, cries of pain, and sounds of metal screeching.

The catwalk began to jolt in time with their steps, and hastily both Virgil-4 and Jane-2 came to a stop. Crouched, out of direct sight of the firefight, they looked at each other. Jane swallowed. Surely by now it was obvious to him that she was a mutant. Unregistered. A traitor.

He met her gaze solemnly. Finally he spoke. "You didn't have to bring me. You could have just saved yourself."

"I." She started, and then stopped, trying to think of what to say. "I owed you one." There, that was sort of true. He'd distracted Hector nicely.

He looked at her thoughtfully. "Is that the only reason?"

"No," She whispered. But she wasn't sure she could explain. Officially, everyone should be most fond of Friend Computer, but she'd always been fond of the Virgil's. All of them, but especially Virgil-4. Which really wasn't right. Besides one's clone family, all other citizens should be the same. Except for heroes like Teela-O. Or traitors, of course.

"I wouldn't want you to ... get shot or … be in danger." She could feel heat in her face. It was a strange reaction.

This close, she found herself uncomfortable with looking in his eyes. So she looked at his jawline instead. And noted something odd. He had faint hairs growing along the skin of his lower face. Like a shadow, sort of.

Unaccountably, he seemed to know what she was looking at. He rubbed his hand along his lower right cheek, frowning slightly. "_Depilatory supplements in the KKD-Barracks Unit-117B, Vend-O-Matic HotBot flavor Algae Chips; I was supposed to be eating them twice a day. DataCorruption, how could I have forgotten that_?"

She looked away, back toward where the shouting and sounds of laser shots had faded. "We should try to get back to our barracks." She said softly.

He held onto her wrist for a moment. "Can I trust you?" He said softly. "Can I trust you to keep my secrets, and to know that I'll keep yours?"

She looked back up at him. Despite everything, she still felt calmed by his touch. She always had.

"Yes." She said quietly.

And he believed her. She was sure of that. So now that she knew she could trust him, she had to ask. "Why?"

"Why do I trust you?"

She nodded.

"Because I know when someone is telling the truth." It was like hearing two voices. He was thinking the exact same thing that he was saying, and there was the feel of absolute conviction.

He'd just told her that he was a mutant too.


End file.
